Falcons rugby director Bates is delighted 6ft 4in All Black prop Hayman will lead his Kingston Park charges into battle next season.

With or without trademark beard, the imposing and rugged Hayman might look rough around the edges, but Bates warned those who underestimate his leadership qualities.

Hayman’s captaincy claim marks a complete turnaround from mid-season, where the 45-cap All Black was worried about his Kingston Park future.

Before Newcastle hammered Bristol and went on that magical six-game winning streak, Hayman could not have dreamed he would be holding the armband in the off-season.

Back in January, Hayman warned that, unless stark improvements were found on and off the field in double-quick time, he might not have been able to honour his current contract.

Six wins in the bag later, and Hayman was safe in the knowledge enough had changed to help him fulfil his contract and his desire to remain on Tyneside.

This latest move underlines quite clearly how committed to the North East club he remains, as a man of his nature would never have agreed to take up the challenge unless fully prepared to meet it head-on. For Bates the move is something of a no-brainer – top-class professional, top-quality performer and a reasoned rugby thinker.

Hayman is not one to waste the spoken word, but Bates said when he speaks, he makes his point count.

And in the wake of this term’s captain Phil Dowson joining Northampton, most crucially, when Hayman speaks, to a man the squad will listen.

Bates said: “Carl is a great leader anyway, irrespective of whether he is captain or not, but to have him as skipper for next season is excellent news for us.

“We did look at the new recruits and there is a fair amount of captaincy experience there, especially with Filipo Levi, but we didn’t want to hand the job to one of the new men when we gave it a lot of thought.

“But when we asked Carl what he thought about taking on the job he had no hesitation in accepting and that’s a big bonus for us.

“He is consistently one of the top performers in the side, has a very distinguished career behind him already and is coming into his prime.

“So with Phil leaving we think we have an excellent leader to take up the role and drive this club forward.

“Appearances can certainly be deceptive, but I don’t think anyone is fooled by the occasional beard, or the hair – anyone who knows anything about rugby knows about Carl Hayman and what he can do on the pitch.

“Allied to that, we know what he offers off the pitch in terms of helping other players develop and helping the team develop too, and for all those reasons and more that’s why he is our new captain.

“He commands the squad’s respect and is a very humble man, and I know his appointment is a popular one.”